Cabinet construction



9 1968 R. T. CORNELIUS I 3,410,449

CABINET CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 20, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet. 1

BY M 4 ATTORNEYS Nov. 12, 1968 -r. CORNELIUS CABINET CONSTRUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 20, 1967 United States Patent 3,410,449 CABINET CONSTRUCTION Richard T. Cornelius, Minneapolis, Minn., assignor to The Cornelius Company, Anoka, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Filed Feb. 20, 1967, Ser. No. 617,375 3 Claims. (Cl. 22081) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A refrigeration cabinet liner of pro-finished material includes a joint extending along three sides of each end wall by which the end walls are joined to the front, bottom and rear walls. The joint includes a marginal portion of U-shaped cross section in one sheet which receives a flexible strip of U-shaped cross section which receives a marginal portion of the other sheet, the strip having a fillet that engages the inner surface of both sheets.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates generally to cabinet constnuctions, and more specifically to a sheet-metal joint which is assembled without use of fasteners, welds or other means that would mar the pre-finished surface of the sheets.

Prior art Heretofore, it has been customary to employ fasteners which comprise extra components to join together cabinet sections, many of which fasteners require that holes or notches be provided in the sheet metal parts to facilitate their use. Also, heretofore, various means have been employed which have involved welds, or which have otherwise precluded the use of pre-iinished liner sheet material. Further, certain configurations have been so constructed that forming machinery could not operate at the corners of the cabinets, thereby necessitating hand completion of forming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, cabinet liner sheets are joined together by virtue of their configuration, together with a novel strip of flexible material. This invention enables assembly to be completed without use of forming machinery for assembly. One sheet is provided with a U-shaped marginal portion which receives a fluidtight gasket of special cross section which includes a U- s'hape disposed in the U-shaped marginal portion, the gasket receiving the marginal portion of the second sheet between the legs of its U-shape, the gasket or strip preferably having a fillet portion biased against the interior surfaces of the cabinet liner to provide a close fitting nonbucklin-g element that serves both functionally and aesthetically without marrin-g the internal surface of the cabinet liner and leaving no raw edge exposed therein.

On the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a developmental view of one sheet which is to form a part of the cabinet liner provided in accordance with the principles of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the structure of FIG. 1 after it has been formed;

FIG. 3 is a developmental view of a second sheet, two of which are used to form the ends of the cabinet, While FIG. 4 illustrates the sheet of FIG. 3 after forming;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a marginal portion of the sheet shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a flexible strip forming a part of this invention;

FIG. 7 is a top view of a refrigeration cabinet with por- 3,410,449 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 tions removed and showing a cabinet liner constructed in accordance with this invention embodied in such refrigeration cabinet; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the cabinet joint according to this invention.

As shown on the drawings:

The principles of this invention are particularly useful when embodied in a metal liner assembly such as illustrated in FIG. 7, generally indicated by the numeral 10. In this embodiment, the metal liner assembly forms a part of a refrigerated cabinet generally indicated by the numeral 11. The cabinet 11 includes an outer wall of any construction, while the liner assembly 10 is spaced inwardly therefrom, at all points, being held in place by foamed insulation which has been foamed in situ, indicated at 12. The liner is provided with a refrigeration line 13 held in place by the insulation 12, and also held in place by the insulation 12 acting through pressure-sensitive aluminum foil tape 14 as shown and claimed in my U.S. Patent No. 3,251,198.

In accordance with the present invention, the metal liner assembly 10 includes a pair of generally rectangular sheets 15, 15, either of which is also referred to herein as a first sheet, and a second sheet .16.

As best seen in FIG. 1, the second sheet 16 is initially flat and rectangular, and the refrigeration line 13 is afiixed thereto as explained above, either before or after forming. The opposite side of the sheet 16 is pre-finished, and to this end the pre-finish may comprise a vinyl coating which is applied at the mill where the sheet stock is manufactured as a part of the initial rolling process. Such prefinished stock is commercially available. Attachment of the refrigeration line 13 in no way damages such prefinish. Thereafter, the structure of FIG. 1 is form-ed into a U-shape as shown in FIG. 2 with bends applied of liberal radius within the chain lines of FIG. 1.

The first sheets 15 or end walls of the cabinet are generally rectangular and are illustrated in their initial form in FIG. 3. The marginal portion along three sides of the sheet 15 is thereafter provided with a U-shaped cross section formed integrally therewith, the U-shaped cross section being formed out of the portion shown within the chain lines in FIG. 3, thereby giving the sheet 15 the appearance shown in FIG. 4. Throughout the extent of the formed marginal portion, the sheet 15 has a cross section as shown in enlarged form in FIG. 5. The sheet 15 also comprises sheet metal which has a mill-applied nonmetallic coating on the inner surface thereof such coating extending into the interior of the U-shaped marginal portion 17. The coating has physical properties equivalent to those of the coatings used on beer can covers, which coating withstands the forming operation which provides the shape of the marginal portion 17. The U-shaped cross section of the marginal portion 17 opens in a direction which is perpendicular to the main plane of the sheet 15, and thus the U-shaped cross section of each sheet 15 opens toward the corresponding construction of the other.

The second sheet 16 thus also has a marginal portion 18 extending along each of its ends.

A strip 19 of flexible material also has a U-shaped cross section and thus includes a leg 20 and a further leg 21 joined together by a curved closed end portion 22. The external radius of the end portion 32 corresponds to the internal radius of the marginal portion 17, and a gap 23 formed between the leg portions 20 and 21 has a minimum or narrowest dimension which is a few thousandths of an inch less than the thickness of the marginal portion 18. The strip 19 comprises flexible plastic material of a length corresponding to the combined length of the three end edges of the sheet 16, and the gasket 19 is thus first slipped onto such marginal portion 18 thereof which is received by the strip 19 within the gap 23.

A similar further strip 19 is placed on the opposite end of the sheet 16.

The strip 19 includes a fillet portion 24 which is integral with the leg 21 and which is disposed outwardly of the U-shape, and which, when assembled, is still disposed outwardly of the U-shape of the marginal portion 17 of the end wall sheets. The fillet 24 has a cross section which tapers to at least one and to preferably two edges 25, 26 which extend in a direction remote from the leg 21 so that both the edges 26 and 25 will lie against the inner surfaces of the sheets 15, 16. The material of the strip 19 may comprise vinyl, and thus is resilient. In its free state, the fillet 24 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 6, and when the strip 19 is placed onto the marginal portion 18, the edge 25 is deflected so that such portion of the fillet takes a configuration as shown in FIG. 8. In this relationship, the internal resilience of the strip 19 acts to hold the edge 25 tightly against the inner surface of the sheet 16.

Thereafter, the end sheets 15 are moved into position with the U-shaped marginal portions 17 receiving the U-shaped portion of the gasket or strip 19, as shown in FIG. 8. The strip 19 fills the U-shaped cross section 17 Which acts as a clamp to deflect the leg 20 tightly against the outside of the sheet 16, while the main flat or central portion of the sheet 15 is moved into abutment with the edge 26 of the fillet 24 so that again the internal resilience of the fillet acts to force the edge 26 tightly against the inner surface of the sheet 15. Friction precludes separation. The resilience in the fillet, and particularly further the stiffness of the edge 26 resists any tendency to buckle where the edge 26 passes around the bottom wall to either the front or rear walls of the cabinet liner 10.

The present invention enables a fabrication of the cab inet liner from pre-finished material without need for any subsequent finishing, and without any damage to such precoating, while avoiding all use of Welds or special fasteners of any type. The components are precluded from separating by virtue of friction which is supplemented by the reactive force from the insulation 12 which functionally is rigid. Moreover, once the components have been fabricated as shown in either of FIGS. 2 and 4, they may be taken from temporary storage and assembled without use of any forming equipment during the assembly operation, and without use of any special hand forming. Thereafter, the liner assembly 10 is disposed within the outer Wall of the cabinet 11 and the insulation 12 is foamed in situ, thereby supporting the liner assembly 10 and also holding its components in assembled relation. The structure of this invention is particularly advantageous from a commercial standpoint since the labor and material costs are thus held to a minimum, while providing an aesthetically pleasing and functionally sound construction.

Although various minor modifications might be suggested by those versed in the art, it should be understood that I wish to embody within the scope of the patent warranted hereon all such embodiments as reasonably and properly come within the scope of my contribution to the art.

I claim as my invention:

1. A cabinet construction comprising:

(a) a first sheet having a marginal portion of U-shaped cross-section integral therewith;

(b) a second sheet having a marginal portion integral therewith; and

(c) a combined molding and fillet strip of flexible material having a body portion of U-shaped cross-section disposed in said marginal portion of said first sheet and receiving said marginal portion of said second sheet, and a fillet portion integral with one of the legs of said body portions U-shape and disposed outwardly of the U-shape of said first sheets marginal portion and in engagement with said sheets adjacent to their said marginal portions.

2. A cabinet construction according to claim 1,. at least one of said sheets being of the pre-finished type having a non-metallic coating of the mill-applied type on that one of its sides which is directed into the interior of the cabinet.

3. A cabinet construction according to claim 2, the inner side of both of said sheets having said mill-applied type of coating.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,234,014 3/l941 Vincent. 2,962,183 11/1960 Rill 2209 3,014,611 12/1961 Marshall 220-9' 3,078,003 2/ 1963 Kesling. 3,150,796 9/1964 Hockling 220-9 3,165,221 1/1965 Kasady 2209 THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner.

GEORGE E. LOWRANCE, Assistant Examiner. 

